W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday September 23, 2020
NOTE: The autumnal equinox occurred this morning, September 22 at 8:30 AM CDT.
Tuesday morning’s sunrise – final sunrise of summer 2020, my school’s parking lot, Naperville, IL. Perspective is facing east September 22, 2020 – 7:10 AM CDT
What memory of summer 2020 will makes you smile?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday September 9, 2020
What fruits are ripening where you live?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday August 26, 2020
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Making the days count, one day at a time, remembering to look around once in a while.
What wonder have you seen in a recent moment’s glance?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday August 19, 2020
What is happening in your world? Stay well, safe, and healthy.
Today was supposed to be the first day of my 2020-21 school year. It will be my 22nd year as a classroom teacher. It was also supposed to the first day of our daughter O’s senior year.
But it’s not. Our first days are a few more days away. My first day of school is nine days in the future and O’s is fifteen.
It’s been a summer of uncertainty and anxiety for many people as the future is constantly changing and beyond our control. I am reminded of a prayer my mother shared with many years ago when I was struggling and needed lifting up,
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.
That prayer is better known as The Serenity Prayer. There is so much beyond my control, it is best to focus on the present.
And, I have been. I’ve been making the days count in more ways than I can write about.
Currently, I am on a streak of seven days of walking or working out.
A week ago this past Saturday I drove to the Morton Arboretum for a hike, or as it turned out, it was a troll. I was able to take in four of the six trolls on my almost 4-mile hike along the trails at the arboretum. It was my longest hike going back to April and it felt good to walk along the wooded paths and hear the birds and the rustle of the gentle wind through the leaves above.
I believe the trolls – the trolls at the arboretum – are trying to tell us something. Continue reading It’s a new (school) year, sort of….
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday August 12, 2020
What can you see from where you are?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday – Wednesday, August 5, 2020. 8:13 PM
What’s blooming in your ‘backyard?’
Actually, it’s only one bear and one puzzle. I’ve been toying with a puzzle for a while and I finally mastered it. It’s two bent nails seemingly locked together. But the two nails do come apart.
The twisted nail puzzle is one puzzle in a boxed set of puzzles I received as a Christmas gift from my daughter a few years ago. I decided to leave them here, at the lake, with her permission. This past week I re-discovered the twisted nails and I have been playing with them as a diversion – off and on. Twisting the two nails back and forth was a wonderful way to pass time and focus on something besides the future – COVID19 and the approaching school year.
It is a glorious day. The sun is brightly shining through a cloudless sky.
I’ve been up since six this morning. I have been awake since before five this morning when I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I gave up trying to sleep after almost an hour of tossing and turning in bed.
Through my bedroom window I could see the faint outline of the trees as earth came back to life early this morning. I remembered reading that three planets: Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars were aligned and visible in the early morning. So, I climbed out of bed, dressed, and started the coffee.
The lake was still, and the lake was shrouded in a deep blue hue in the pre-dawn light. Along the southeastern I could see one planet with the naked eye and could faintly make out the other two. I quickly snapped a shot and then used an iPhone app – Skyview Light – to visualize the early morning sky. What my eye could see, my phone could not – not enough light.
But the three planets were there – hidden in the light.
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” Henri Bergson
It’s Easter Sunday and there is light. Let’s set aside dark and heavy for a day, and focus on light instead.
Last night, O called attention to the lake shore and the evening’s sunset. B and I walked to the shoreline to watch the sun set over the lake together with O.
I have been taking sunset pictures for longer than I can remember. Continue reading light
